10 day outlook

[grab the net]

Mother nature is collecting her debts. To much nice April weather.

[TonkaBass]

Yes she is! I just hope that this isn't the trend for the whole summer... I want my calm sunny days!!! lol

[Irish]

I agree! We better have a nice summer. I am looking out my window right now and it is blowing thirty with driving rain.

[Set The Hook]

I wonder what mode the bass are in now that we've had a streak of cold days and nights. I'm guessing the water temps have dropped some what...?

[Craigums]

My guess would be that some bass havent spawned yet and some have, both sets of fish should be hanging back off the bank a little on the 1st break leading up to or off of a spawning flat.

[Deitz Dittrich]

Every lake I fished in WI this last week are still prespawn.. no spawners as of yet..

[Craigums]

Every lake I fished in WI this last week are still prespawn.. no spawners as of yet..

Wow! with that was april we had I would have swore some got a chance to spawn. Infact Mid april I walked by dog around the lake a few times and found lots of nice bass in 1ft of water. I didnt however see any beds...

[Nick Kuhn]

Even with the warm day-time temperatures it was still cold overnight once you got outside the metro, preventing water from warming any further. I believe water temps hit mid-upper 50's pretty early in April, and haven't changed much since.

[Deitz Dittrich]

yup.. what he said.. 55-57 is what I found for the most part.

[st.crioxfishin]

Not sure if this helps at all, but the fish in SE Iowa Lakes are in all stages. Some prespawn, some on the bed, and some cruisers that are spawned out...

[Cecil]

Temps aren't the only factor either. If the water hit 60 degrees here in April they would be crusing the shallows but wouldn't spawn for quite some time. Have to consider day length as well as moon phases.

[Set The Hook]

Hmmm... interesting stuff guys. I wonder what stage most bass are gonna be in here in the metro come the Bass Opener in 3 and 1/2 more weeks.

[TonkaBass]

Temps aren't the only factor either. If the water hit 60 degrees here in April they would be crusing the shallows but wouldn't spawn for quite some time. Have to consider day length as well as moon phases.

I agree... Sometimes I've wondered if the eggs in the females would even be ready to drop in April.

[Fever]

Full moon was 28th of April. I think by opener (22nd) the majority of fish should be post spawn and transitioning from shallows to first break lines. Bigger females on average a bit deeper, smaller males that were protecting nests still a bit shallower. Bite should be pretty good by then. Three weeks after full moon when water temps are just over 60. Sounds like a recipe for sucess. BUT.... Daily weather will always trump that. Look outside today. This weather isn't helping anything. 40's +_ rain.... ughh.

[Z-520]

Every lake is different and they don't all spawn at once. On opener just like every year you will be able to target pre, post and spawn fish.

[bassfshin24]

Actually FEVER opener is the 29th. Hope i didnt just give you a heart attack. I will be up on Mille Lacs and I guarentee ya I will find some smallies on their bed that weekend. I was up their last year...opener was a week ealier but found quite a few smallies on their bed...i think most were in transition from pre-spawn to spawn though.

[Fever]

Right on.... the 29th. I should have double checked that before hitting enter. No heart attack but thanks for quickly getting your response in. I hope I didn't screw people up. This year I do think that we are about 2 weeks ahead of schedule due to early weather but Yeah, I agree that you will always find fish in different stages as they are not all doing the same thing at the same time. BUT, this year I think we will be a bit a head of schedule, meaning significantly more fish will be in the post spawn stage than spawn or pre spawn. I to agree that each lake is different and that Larger lakes like Mille Lacs will be a few degrees cooler and slightly behind smaller lakes. Fun to speculate. On the 29th I plan on starting shallow then moving to some deep structure.

[Nick Kuhn]

I'll be out fishing them tomorrow across the border. Probably starting out at about 7 feet of water looking for fish near weed edges and rock piles. Still got too many new toys to throw so I'll probably have a good amount of experimenting time.

[Irish]

I was planning on making my first trip of the season tomorrow but this cold front may really shut em down and make fishing miserable. Anybody but also braving the elements?

[sicheneder]

i did see a pair getting down and dirty yesterday in wisc.,but those were the only ones.

[Nick Kuhn]

I was planning on making my first trip of the season tomorrow but this cold front may really shut em down and make fishing miserable. Anybody but also braving the elements?

It actually wasn't too bad out there in the afternoon if you could stay out of the wind. As far as the fishing goes, it was an interesting day. We only managed a single 16.5" bass, so I'm guessing the bass were really shut down. We managed 16 pike though. The bait had to be smaller than 3" in length to get any hits. You probably could have got some bass slowing down with small plastics but the way the pike were nailing small cranks we stuck with those all day. Tested out the new baitcaster and all I caught was a bird (not sure what it was thinking swinging at my lure).

And no trip is complete without pics:

Brother with the only bass of the day:

The bird I caught before we released him on shore (not sure how injured that wing is but we gave it a chance):

Me with the best fish of the day, a very healthy 34" pike:

[Irish]

I made it out yesterday but I decided to chase walleye on the river instead. As Nick said it really was a nice afternoon to be on the water.